Violet Potter the Kunoichi 2 - Pickpocketing Days
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Part Two of the saga. Violet has adjusted to life without the Dursleys, and she is now part of a gang of pickpockets. But as they move, will she be able to come away from someone who discovers what she's doing?
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Harry Potter, just this story and others like it. **

**Please let me know what you think. **

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**Violet Potter the Kunoichi.**

**Pickpocketing Days**

Violet Potter had been living in London for a year, and she was amazed by how much had changed in her life.

One day, she had managed to escape from the Dursleys. She had spent a good few days on the streets, frightened the police would be stripping the city to pieces just to find her, and return her to the Dursleys.

It never happened. She had always known the Dursleys had nothing but hatred for her for reasons that passed understanding, but she had always wondered if they would have raised the alarm if she had run away, but nothing had happened.

For three weeks she had spent her time finding the right places to live, which wasn't easy because she was used to living in a house. Okay, so she had lived in a Cupboard under the Stairs, but still, she was used to living in a specific place. On the streets, she'd only had a basic idea of where she could live, and she had learnt quickly.

But thankfully she wasn't the only homeless kid on the streets. It hadn't taken long for her to find the gang of kids from ages as young as two to the ages of nine and eleven.

They were all pickpockets, but she hadn't cared since she was desperate to survive. For months, Violet learnt how to pick people's pockets, she had learnt how to be on lookout for any police officers, or any onlookers who would quickly figure out the group of kids surrounding a tourist, or some unsuspecting soul were pickpockets, and then she had moved up until she was a distractor who was in charge of engaging the victim in a conversation, or she would be the one picking the pockets.

She was adept with all of them.

Violet caught the eye of the other member of the gang, nodding as they slipped through the ticket barrier at Victoria station. They were almost unnoticed as they slipped through the barrier, and although a few of the people in the station noticed them, the place was so packed with commuters and more than a few tourists who came from all corners of the globe, but it helped Victoria was one of the busiest stations on the London Underground so the station being packed was a bonus.

As they walked through the station ticket office, taking out their travel-cards, Violet spotted two people speaking loudly in accents she recognised as American, and she once more caught the eye of another member of the gang, tilting her head in the direction of the tourists. The other gang member, a boy of around four years of age, nodded back, and together they walked over.

The boy stepped close to Violet, the girl noticing his body language. He tilted his head to the left and then to the right. In reply, Violet tilted her head to the right. The boy nodded and by the time they reached the American tourists, the boy had taken a position in front of them.

"Hello!" he said brightly.

Violet waited for a minute, seeing a few of the gang taking point nearby, but with so many people cramming through the ticket office until the place was as crowded as a tin of sardines, it was hard for Violet to keep them in sight. She let out a silent breath and she knew without reliable lookouts, she would be doing this blind, but as long as she was quick it should go well.

The American tourists were busy yakking on in front of her friend, but they seemed reliably distracted enough for her liking, and she studied them closely. The man's jowls and his bulging belly jiggled inside his loose and comfortable Hawaiian style shirt which made him look as though he was going to a bright, sunny beach instead of going down into one of the Underground stations - Violet had no idea shirts this big came mass-produced, and she wondered if it was tailored for a moment before she decided it didn't matter - as he laughed loudly at something, but since she was paying attention to her surroundings with a practiced ease as well as mentally stripping away their appearances to find out the more likely places where their belongings were.

The man was easy to figure out. He had a bulging back pocket, and she could just about see the wallet stuffed with money. Violet stepped over to him, making eye contact with her friend. She tilted her head down to let him know she was going to slip the wallet out of the pocket, and she took out from underneath her arm the comic book she'd picked up earlier and she opened it up to create a shield between herself and the public before she slowly sneaked out a hand, and she gently pinched the wallet with her index and middle fingers before she slowly slid the wallet out of the pocket.

The fat American was still too busy yakking with the woman he was with to her unlucky friend to pay attention to these two, but the good thing was he was skilled enough to tune out the worst of the conversation so they'd be distracted enough for her to pick their pockets.

Time seemed to stand still as Violet lifted the wallet out of the pocket. So many things could go wrong; one of the Underground staff could suddenly spot them, another passenger could simply look down at what she was doing behind this couple and raise the alarm while grabbing onto her and forcing her to return the wallet, but nothing happened as she slipped the wallet out, and nothing did happen as she sandwiched the wallet between the pages of the comic.

She nodded at the boy and walked away to the far wall, taking care and noticing her surroundings; she was so small, either from her genes or from the abuse and neglect of the Dursleys who had shoved her into a cupboard under the stairs, and not given her enough healthy food and drink to survive which had inhibited her growth, and the last thing she wanted was to be shoved into a wall, or trod underfoot. At the same time, she practiced her sleight of hand.

The stampede was pouring into the station by the time she met her friends.

"You got it okay, Vi?"

"You bet," she replied before she looked around the ticket hall. "Now come on, let's get down to the trains. I thought we were moving on to King's Cross."

The gang went through the barriers and down the steps, which was a relief - Violet didn't really like travelling down the escalators, given how small and petite she actually was, and the chaos of the crowd, it was understandable she was frightened one of the passengers would send her flying down the steep incline down to the tube to her death - but there was no need to worry about that, since they were going to be travelling on the Circle rather than the Victoria Line.

Sure, it would be a rather longer journey, but they were going to be spending the day moving from one Underground station the next, and they were going to be stealing from other tourists, but in King's Cross they would be meeting with the more adult members of the gang, who had moved there gradually over the past week with some of the younger members. Unlike the chaotic mess that was the British government, which Violet remembered her uncle vividly moaning about while her aunt absently agreed with his moans, the gang was truly democratic, with everyone allowed to speak up and present their own ideas of how to do things and carry out and organise their tasks.

On the platform, it was just as busy here as the ticket office was. The gang of thieves moved through the crowd, taking wallet and purse alike, though not too many since they were travelling light today.

When they reached the end of the platform with two minutes to spare, Violet turned to one of the girls.

"Which stations are we going to first, Lexi?" she asked. They all knew while Kings Cross was the station on their agenda since this part of London was becoming too hot for them since the police had stepped up their patrols to locate the gang of pickpockets operating in Victoria, it had already been decided they would pick the pockets of tourists and locals in other parts on the way.

"Tower Hill," Lexi replied. "Plenty of tourists, and plenty of opportunities."

Andy, the boy who had distracted the American couple, spoke up next, "How come we're not getting off of any of the other stations along the way?"

"We'd be leaving a trail for the coppers to find," Lexi replied. She was a girl who was a good head and half a torso taller than Violet was, and her dark ebony skin shone in the underground setting. "In any case, we'll only be in Tower Hill for a few hours to get a bite to eat and pick a few more pockets, and then we'll head for Tower Hill."

Violet nodded in satisfaction, and she stepped onto the train with her friends. Well, they were more like family to her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Violet Potter the Kunoichi.**

When they walk out of the station at Tower Hill after a long journey while everyone had almost been bored to death although they were happy they were much closer to King's Cross now than they had been before, Violet smiled when she saw the sight in front of her; she didn't particularly care about the Tower itself, but she did care about what was in front of it. Seething like an army of ants going about their task of stripping a forest to a wasteland, where an army of tourists wearing brightly coloured clothes, carrying cameras was queuing up. Some of them were snapping photographs at everything they saw, and after squinting a bit because of the annoying distance, Violet saw they were so careless they openly shoved their wallets and purses away in their pockets.

It was almost as if they didn't believe _London _even had pickpockets. It was crazy, but while she sneered at their stupidity Violet did like the way they made this job easier for kids like her and her gang. She could see why Lexi had chosen this place for them, it was perfect.

Violet smirked as she watched them all, and even with her dodgy eyesight behind her round sellotaped glasses which were still damaged thanks to Dudley and his gang of morons, she had little trouble actually counting the number of people walking around holding their purses or wallets.

"Look at them," she whispered to Lexi and the others. "They aren't even hiding them."

"Yeah, this is gonna be easy," Kate giggled.

Lexi was quick to impose order. "Don't get cocky, we've still gotta get over there, and we want to make this quick."

If there was one thing she had always admired about Lexi, it was her ability to quickly make sure everyone thought about business, and Violet hoped she became as good as Lexi was. While she had become a thief early thanks to her life with the Dursleys, though that was more out of necessity than anything else, Violet had realised quickly she would need to become a thief herself when she started living on the streets of London.

The gang members split up although they went in either pairs or threes, and they went into the crowds of tourists. As she approached a large cluster of tourists, Violet slowed her walk down and watched them all carefully, and she smirked when she saw a few of them pocketing their wallets. Some of them were not going to be simple to take, but Violet wasn't that worried.

She and the gang were not going to be here much longer, and that was okay for Violet.

She walked over to the nearest man who was pocketing his wallet into his back pocket, and she headed over to him, quickening her pace as he was moving away from her really quickly. As she approached him, she lifted up her comic book and she walked behind him while making sure no-one was looking at her. Using the book as a shield, Violet used her fingers to deftly slide the wallet out of the pocket. One of the things she had learnt during her time with the gang was if you snatched the wallet or purse out of the pocket, it was more likely to be noticed.

Violet took a deep breath as she headed away from the tourist without being noticed. The man whom she had just robbed hadn't noticed a thing, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Tanya and Sasha, both girls were in the gang, and both were a couple of years younger than Violet.

The slightly older girl noticed the two girls were at different stages of picking the pockets of their own targets. Sasha had finished, but Tanya was having problems with her own, but Violet couldn't see what was wrong. Finally, Tanya managed to get the wallet out, and she was clearly pleased by the success of her robbery.

Her expression of glee faded, and a look of panic crept over her face. Violet quickly saw the reason; the tourist whom Tanya had just robbed was beginning to turn around, but Sasha got there quickly, and she managed to hide the wallet from the tourist so he couldn't see that the little girl had robbed him.

Overall, despite one or two near misses - the tourist, instead of suspecting Sasha or Tanya of stealing off of him, instead said hello to the girls without even thinking to check his pockets; Violet privately wondered what he would think when he discovered his wallet had been pinched - the day had actually gone by very well.

Finally, Lexi personally sought out each and every single one of the group. She had decided they had been at the Tower of London long enough, and that they had taken more than a fair share of wallets away from the tourists. She couldn't yell out the names of everyone there of course mostly because her voice would have been drowned out by the crowd, and it wouldn't carry to the ears of everyone so she had to spend a lot of time going through the crowd who slowed her down but those children she found in the mix she told it was over, and she told them to go over and wait by the wall without stealing anything else, but Violet was a fair distance away.

She had already taken the wallet from five more tourists, and she was just finishing up with another when she heard something that made her feel sick.

"'Kay, I just need to get my wallet," the man whom she was picking the pocket of said out loud.

Violet froze although a part of her mind, the part which had been told time and again by Lexi and the other elder members of the gang never to do, and she panicked. She ripped the wallet out of the man's pocket.

"Hey, I've just been robbed! Come back here, come back with my wallet!"

Violet ran as fast as she could. Attracted by the noise, Lexi rushed over and grabbed the smaller girl's shoulders. "What happened?" she whispered.

"I panicked!" Violet stammered, looking over her shoulder just as the red-faced tourist came towards them, and her heart rate sped up.

"What happened?" Lexi repeated her question as the man approached.

The man jabbed an angry finger at the trembling Violet. "Yeah, she stole my wallet!"

Lexi closed her eyes. "Oh, damn it. I'm so sorry. My half-sister suffers from kleptomania, and she can't help herself. Violet, give the man his wallet, now," she finished firmly.

Violet sighed, realising that Lexi had just given her a valuable cover. "I am sorry," she apologised as she handed the wallet over.

The tourist was surprised. He had obviously expected a fight. He took the wallet with a look of shame for his earlier attitude. "That's alright, thank you," the tourist said. "Just make sure she doesn't do it again."

The tourist walked away.

Lexi sighed and turned to Violet. "We need to talk," she said seriously.

"I know," Violet whispered, and Lexi sighed.

The two thieves walked away. "Violet, we don't panic or run away whenever we steal from someone. It's one of the golden rules, and you need to learn them off by heart."

"I know Lexi," Violet said.

"When we get to King's Cross, I will work with you, and some of the others to give you the training needed to stop this from happening again. You were lucky I was nearby. If I wasn't, you would have been arrested. Is that what you want?"

Violet didn't. She had no idea if the police would discover her ties with the Dursleys, and send her back to live with them. "No," she whispered.

Lexi sighed, feeling sorry for the girl. "If its any consolation, Violet, you're not the only one who has had this happen. You're a good pickpocket, you're smart and quick on your feet. I did the same thing myself once," she admitted.

"You did?" Lexi looked up in surprise. "What happened?"

"Let's say I had to kick the woman I was stealing from in the knee, and punch her in the gut before I ran away," Lexi replied. "But the point is you should be more careful."

Violet nodded.

For the rest of her life, Violet would remember this lesson. When Lexi escorted her group to King's Cross, the elder girl told the others about what had happened. The elder boys and girls immediately began teaching her ways of avoiding anything familiar happening again. The older gang members had different ways of teaching Violet what they wanted her to know, but all of them had one thing in common; they always made sure to never tell her outright what they wanted her to know, so she was prepared beforehand.

For two months she trained long and hard. It was her own decision. She didn't want to go back out picking pockets only to get caught.


End file.
